Welcome And Guest Introductions

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Sarah and Trey, thank you for being here today. Thank you so much for having us. Well, you both have a very impressive background. So I want you to introduce yourselves and just tell us how you got here.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Sure. So I my name is Sarah Brown, and I am an an HP mom. I have two kids. Well, I have one kid in the district now. And I love community-based apps. So my background is working with a babysitting app. I've also worked with a tutoring app. And most most recently I worked with a home improvement app, essentially. And seeing just how the communities really come together, I realized that small spaces are really important for communities. And then our block was born sort of based out of communities helping each other. And I realized those really small circles are what matter the most. And Trey?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Hi, I'm Trey Bowles. I'm a HP dad. I've got a child at higher at Highland Park Middle School and one at the high school.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Oh my.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

And uh my background is as an entrepreneur. Uh I always say entrepreneur ad investor, not turned investors, because I'm still an entrepreneur, still building stuff. But now we have a company called 1845

Meet The Founders Behind Our Block

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Ventures with a business partner, and we spend time working with co-founding companies with founders like Sarah.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

And how did the two of you connect? You take that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Uh we met through her husband.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah. My husband is uh is Trey's business partner. Oh very nice, very nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Which I think is really interesting because I think that makes our investment and partnership with you so much more real because we're connected in the way that we are, that it meant that her idea and her vision had to be so much better than other people's because she was married to my business partner. And so I think it it says a lot about who you are as a as a founder, as an entrepreneur, and and the experience you have on why we participated here.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah, that day was a tough pitch because you guys weren't afraid to ask me the tough questions.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Well, that makes a lot of sense. Well, Sarah, you had shared with me before, you have a really interesting story of what motivated you to start our block. Can you

The Break-In That Started It

SPEAKER_02 2:10

share it with us?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah, so uh sadly but not sadly, my my son's car was broken into on our street. We live on the 4,500 block of Arcade, and during that time, you know, it was it was the morning of final. So as you can imagine, I had told him, like, please do not leave your backpack in your car. Lo and behold, the backpack gets stolen and there's glass everywhere, and he is, you know, the bell rings at 810, and it's eight o'clock in the morning, and he's got no laptop for his first final. So it really started from there is how do I reach out to my neighbors to see if there's video footage? You know, who else's cars, who, who else on the blocks cars got broken into potentially, and how could we really help each other? Turns out three cars got hit on our street that day. And there was video footage from the beginning all the way down to the very end. So we were able to provide that to the police officer, and that really helped them. I I do believe they found an arrest, they actually got an arrest, and that's not the first time that's happened on our block. We've gotten hit a few times because we're right up to Roland, which is close to the toll way. So it's just really important to me to have the community, especially on the block level, um, look out for each other.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Well, what do you think would have helped the process go better if you had had our block already implemented?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Well, we have old spreadsheets, is how we're communicating right now. So old spreadsheets and so many people this past summer have moved out or moved in. Um, we have new construction. So there's just all sorts of things happening on our block. And it's just not quick enough. You know, people aren't checking their email right away. They might be checking it late at night, they might not prioritize a block level, you know, email. Um I've also heard, you know, people are using uh Facebook messaging or they're using um iMessage, and those are capped at a number of people that can use them. And as we all joke, lo and behold, someone doesn't have an iPhone, and then you're capped at 20 people, which that means you can't even use iMessage for your phone. So um it just delays the process of getting the message out. And with our block, I could have sent out an alert and it would be a push notification on their phone, and they would have gotten it quicker. So we could have helped each other more. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Well, it sounds like it would be really helpful. It seems like we do have a lot of car break-ins in the neighborhood, unfortunately. But also, second would be lost dogs, I feel like is is one that comes up constantly. And just, you know, having that closeness with your neighbors and them knowing who your dog is and kind of having their eyes out on on the streets looking for your dog, I think would be really helpful too.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Of course, yeah, especially when it matters the most, like right when your dog gets out or right when someone sees the dog, you know, the recognizing it. Um, my husband and I, we travel a lot, and I know in our community a lot of people travel. Um, it's nice to be able to communicate with your block if a package, you know, you maybe you have a subscription that gets mailed every month and you forgot about it and it's sitting on on your front porch. Like you don't feel comfortable going into a big community forum and letting them know you're out of town, but you do feel comfortable letting your neighbor know and ask if they don't mind picking it up for you. And and that happens, you know, those are sort of why this was born. Um, also recently, we I don't know if you guys have this where we live. We can hear the racers on on Wednesday nights go down the toll way. And our uh one neighbor on our block was trying to get everyone involved to go to the city to try to police it a little bit more. And he was passing out flyers that he had printed, and I thought, there's gotta be a better way. Like you don't have to print these flyers and walk them to your neighbor. Could you imagine if we could just upload a PDF and

Fast Alerts For Real Life Moments

SPEAKER_01 5:45

send it all out and then you knew where to show up and you knew where to voice your opinion or you knew how to get involved? Um, there's just so many use cases just to make it relevant and fast. And funny enough, I hear this from a lot of dads, is they might be on the chat and us moms, we love to post in the message groups. But the dads are in business meetings sometimes. I mean, moms are too, but you know, they're in business meetings and they get 64 notifications and then they end up turning them off or they end up muting them, and then they're not valuable at all, those those message groups.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

So yeah, that happens to me frequently. I'm trying to record at my desk and it keeps dinging. So um, well, what I thought was really interesting about this app is how you all have really narrowed it down by block. And I know that you put a lot of thought and work into that, and I would love to hear more about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, so I just feel like so much communication happens on the block level, and AI is coming, we know that, but as it comes, like I do think that these smaller circles are going to be really valuable. Um, we have a block that does a holiday party every winter, and I love that we all get together and how do we easily integrate the new neighbors? Like using our block could easily integrate them, make sure that they're invited and included. We often, you know, joke about, you know, coming out and having a cocktail on Friday night, and all of a sudden my husband and I we walk in the dog and we run into our neighbors. Like, wouldn't it be great to be like, hey, we're all at in front of this house on this part of the block, come out and join us? Like, really inviting people to get to know each other, help each other, and just really support each other in these small circles. You might not drive across the neighborhood to meet a friend last minute, but you would walk outside your front door to chat with your neighbors.

Verification, Privacy, And App Features

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Right. Well, tell me about uh the technology involved. How do you verify that someone does in fact live at the address they're giving you?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yeah, so we have block leaders, and the block leader is, you know, the the I say it's the boss of your block because it's kind of funny. Like some people really want to be the boss of their block, and they're like, oh my gosh, I want to be the boss. And I'm like, all right, you gotta you gotta sign up your block first. And they're verifying as people come in. So the first level of of security is telephone verification. Um, I really wanted to go that way because I wanted to make sure that it's one, one of the most secure ways that you can log into an app, but then two, you would apply to your block, and then your block leader would know you and then approve you to be in the block. And then there's different background security things that are running just to make sure that they're safe and secure. And so a lot of people go, well, why can't I use like Facebook or whatnot or a Facebook group? Well, Facebook groups are really great, but it just takes one unverified profile to get broken into, and then the whole group is compromised because that person now has access to all your private groups because they were able to break into your account.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Well, what type of information can neighbors see? Like, let's have a scenario that it's working on my block. What can I see? How can I narrow it down and filter things?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Um, yeah, all sorts of ways. So at the top there's recommendations, there's just general questions. Um there's also a so that would be your like main, I guess you we could call it a timeline or a feed. So your main timeline or feed would be, you know, just being able to communicate. Then you have messages, and messages you can do one-on-one messages with a neighbor, you can maybe you have like the dads of Arcity and and they like to play poker on Thursday nights or something, or mom's mahjong, and and there's different people that are part of that. We are also created communities. So if you do have a community on your block that does something and you just want everyone to join whoever wants to without being invited, on your block only, they could also just see those communities and join. And the directory, so if you need to reach out to one specific neighbor, I joke that we have this wonderful neighbor who I've lived across the street for for six years, and I don't know his name, and I feel too embarrassed to actually ask it. So much time has passed. Yeah, because now I feel like, oh my gosh, I should know this. But what's really great about our block is I can go into the directory and I can see where they live, and then I can see their name and what they call their family or how they want to be addressed. And so it's just a more polite way to use technology to be able to know your neighbors by name.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Well, Trey, I want to hear from

What Investors Look For Early

SPEAKER_02 10:00

you. I know you talk to a lot of businesses, you hear from a lot of people that are presenting ideas to you, you see a lot of businesses, and how do you choose who to invest in? What about specifically with our block interested you?

SPEAKER_00 10:13

For us, it's uh at the stage we're investing, which is super early, maybe the idea stage, we call that the pre seed. The most important part is the founder. And um, is he or she capable? Do they have a good background and an experience? Um, how how how convicted they are by by the problem, how what how what the purpose is. Like the hardest part about building a business is that once somebody actually starts to do it and they realize how hard it is, most people stop. So do they have what it takes to stick through all the ups and downs that that come together? And I think one of the things that struck me the most about Sarah was when she came in, like any business I'd look at, I had questions, objections, ideas, and she was able to address each objection and overcome it. She has built um as good as anybody in the country these communities across the US, and she's done it multiple times with multiple businesses, a few of which have now exited and sold. And so she is as good as they get at building the thing I was most worried about, which is how do you build a community, how do you get people involved and engaged in an app like this, right? Then I had to take the other piece of it, which I am I am a dad in Island Park, and I do have kids, and I do have a block and neighbors, and and I started to think through, you know, how do we currently communicate, right? The other thing you're looking for as an investor is is there really a problem? Right? Sometimes you feel a problem, but other people don't feel it. But when I looked at our block, I said, this is a real problem that we're facing all the ways that we communicate. Uh the one that hit me the most strongly was the constant barrage of uh beeps and buzzes on my phone, on the on the chat chat list of the iMessage system, which I do turn off and does does make me ineff ineffective there. This creates an opportunity where I know that I'm talking to people on my block. People that I live next to, people that I live life with. Closer. Sorry. People that I live next to, people that I live life with, and people that are uh focused and concerned about the same things I am, right? We we spent a thing a few years ago. We live right across the street from Christ the King, and people don't know, but the in the middle of our block, um Dallas and University Park connect. And so Christ the King's in Dallas, our houses are in University Park, and so the rules I'll be. So we had a big issue on our block trying to figure out how do we go to the city, how do we deal with some of these concerns. When somebody new moved down to the block a couple months ago, I was concerned, you know, I want to take something to this to this new family, but I didn't want to be one of 20 couples bringing them chocolate chip cookies. So why can't we sign up and determine who's gonna bring what why can't we find out what kind of food they like? I mean, all these things that are both utility utilities in terms of actual interaction, but also community that we're building, the way to get to know the people around us. And as Sarah said before, the the ability to help our neighbors. Any of us would be willing to go pick up somebody's paper or somebody's mail or do something to help them out. And this just gives us the best way to do it. And so it wasn't just about the excitement I had that we were launching this in the park cities, which is incredible, and the right place to do it. It was the fact that Sarah had built a vision to span this across the entire United States. That's where we saw the opportunity from an investment perspective, and that's why we got involved at 1845 ventures.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

And she had a proven track record too, to go along with it.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Well, guys,

Why This Beats Nextdoor And Facebook

SPEAKER_02 13:40

we've been talking about the app for a while now, and I just keep going back to next door and Facebook groups and wondering how is this different from those?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

So I I'll I'll address next door. I think I think next door is a different customer than what our block is is facing. I think we're really lucky and fortunate to have the CEO of Nextdoor in Dallas, so it's fun to see a great technology like that with a presence here. But I think we're really focused on this hyper-local, the people that live directly next to you, which I think is different than what I typically see next door address. And I think that they serve two different needs. And so for us, when we think about what our block's gonna do and how are we different, it's really about that that house level, block level, neighborhood level engagement as opposed to what's going on across town or what's going on in different parts of a city.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah, that makes perfect sense because I get the notifications for next door and it'll say a major wreck has happened near your neighborhood, and I'll look on there and it's nowhere near me, and I have sometimes I don't even know where it is. So I get that for sure. That's a big difference. What about with Facebook groups?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

I think Facebook groups also have a value. It's just very different. I I do think that in today's environment, people are not as trusting a Facebook and that people are moving away from it. Like my husband has never been on Facebook, he doesn't believe in social media, he's just it's just not his thing. And I think more and more we're seeing people step away from these big social platforms. I always say with with our block, you'll gain you know an hour back of your day because you won't get lost in the algorithms.

unknown 15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Well, and how many times do what whether it's LinkedIn or Facebook or something, do I do I meet somebody in real life and they said, Oh, we know each other. We're friends on LinkedIn, we're friends on Facebook or Instagram. And I think to myself, I've never met you before in my life. Right. Which is okay. It's great to meet new people. But with our block, the this trusted relationship isn't about just, I think I may know this person. This is this person lives three houses down across the street. I see them every day. It's very different in terms of the trust level and the way we're verifying through an actual block leader who knows everybody on the block and is engaged with them and really trying to find ways to serve them. So it's not that the other technologies aren't valuable. It's just what we're doing is really focused on you, your house, your block, your neighborhood, and all the things that come alongside with that. We don't believe anybody's adequately serving that market right now.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Well, I want to ask a few questions about the block leaders because this seems like a very vital role here. I have seen plenty of conversations on social media get

Block Leaders And Keeping Things Civil

SPEAKER_02 16:20

kind of ugly and very negative. And again, we're all neighbors here, so you I feel like you're going to see those people again, and you probably want to be on good behavior, yet some people are not behaving very well out there. How do you control people that are not acting very nice on there?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Well, there's a couple things. We can remove posts. Um, we do have some security measures that are already in place for keywords, uh repeat offenders, um, imagery that will be blocked if you're trying to do that. I also, you know, we're not allowing any anonymous posts or any anonymous comments. So I people are really gonna stand behind their name. And I'm sort of going with the fact that on the block level, um, neighbors are gonna be on their best behavior because it is the people that they see every day. It's it's not across the block. Even though some of these groups are vast and and big, you know, you there's a difference between someone who lives up near um North Park and someone who lives in West Highland Park. Like that's a big, that's a big uh distance between the two. So maybe they're not as willing to to talk nicely because they're so far apart that this is you know really the people that they're walking their dog by in the afternoon. Right. Well go ahead, Jim.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Well, and this is this is a another unique set of set of skills that that Sarah has specifically from her experience, right? She's dealt in these community technology apps with every single possible conceivable situation uh that you can ever imagine. And so she's building the technology with all of that foresight in mind, knowing what are our biggest problems going to be, what are the things we need to look out for, what are the technologies that we need to bring in to keep people safe, to keep the environment you know family friendly, and to and to build a scenario where we're getting in front of some of those problems that she's learned over the years, um, having to experience them. And so what it does is it creates a more nurturing environment from the get-go. Again, another benefit of having done this a bunch of times and having seen hundreds of communities launch all across the country.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Right, right. So, what about these other groups that we're in? PTA, mom's clubs, dad's clubs, YMSL, NCL, all the little subsections that we're all involved with.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Well, we've got it. We've already built communities inside the app so we can just have everything in one place. It's a nice, neat utility app that keeps everyone organized, all those communities, all those one-on-one chats, all the way down to the block level.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

So you have the capability of making subgroups, individual subgroups within this app, if you would like. Well, I think I'm finally kind of seeing the vision here because I'm thinking of all these groups on my phone that just drive me crazy when they constantly beep when I'm in meetings or recording or whatever I'm doing at the time. And it really does sound like you're you're a central hub for all these things, and there's a way to control the notifications and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Definitely. Not only can you control the notifications, you can also control your privacy. It's all directly in the app. So I assume the end game is to want to make money with

Local Business Reviews And Monetization

SPEAKER_01 19:25

this. How do you see that working? Well, we have a business directory, and right now our launch partner is Trust and Will. Thank you, Trust and Will. And in our business directory, if you own a local business, you can be a part of that. You just go to joinarblock.com and you can put in a request and we'll add you to the app. And what's important to me about how we are presenting these are they are locally owned community businesses. They are the businesses that are serving our community, and we want to support them, especially in today's environment. And not only that, but there's a nice review process. So if you've ever been on Google or TripAdvisor or any of those places where you're looking at reviews, just sort of reading between the lines of the reviews, these are actually reviews from your friends and neighbors. So no longer, I sort of joke and say, recommendations so good, your neighbors must have given them. So you'll be able to go in there, recognize, and see the reviews from your neighbors. And that came from an app that I worked at when people were like, oh, I'm never gonna hire a babysitter from an app. And I said, Well, what if you opened up the app and you could see your friend's favorite babysitter? And all of a sudden that was a game changer when people realized they could borrow their friend's favorite babysitter. So I took that from that particular app and said, you know, if you're looking for a roofer, what if I went on there and I saw Martha's favorite roofer? I definitely uh trust much more your recommendation than a random Google review. So we're really trying to highlight local businesses and um and support the reviews that are authentic.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

And I think businesses are are really starting to see the value because they're constantly trying to find ways to reach people in specific areas, right? Whether it's geographies, whether it's on certain websites, but in the end, you know, you've got a physical small business that's locally located. Where do you go to find the people that you want to reach? We've seen businesses so excited about what we're building that they started signing up to become customers before we ever launched the app. And so it is really resonating with them. Uh Sarah, again, going back to her experience, has done things like this all over the country. So we're taking from that background and expertise that she's actually lived, but then also sitting in front of local businesses and trying to understand what they need, what they want, what's valuable to them, and creating for them several different avenues where they can get in front of these people. And then, like Sarah said, the greatest thing on top of that is it's not just having your business presented in front of your friends, but having your friends say, You should go check out this new restaurant. You absolutely need to use this plumber because those are the people you listen to, right? And being able to do that rather than proactively having to reach out to a bunch of people and make a bunch of phone calls. I mean I call my favorite realtors and say, who do you use for these things? And they say, everybody calls me. Like, wouldn't there be great if there was a place to do that? And RBlocks that place in local communities.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Not only that, one my favorite thing about Yelp is that if you just pay them enough, they'll remove the bad review.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Oh, very nice to know. Well, I am really big on getting people's recommendations, people that I know, like, and trust out there. Um, however, my husband Sean, he goes to, he still uses Yelp or Google, and and Yelp just cracks me up because that I feel like it kind of ran its course and is maybe not as popular as it used to be. And so I get on to them a lot because I'm like, that's just a bunch of strangers that we do not know, you know, what they're like and what their opinions are, if they're worthwhile or not. And so I get on to him about going out there and using those two options. So I definitely prefer a hyper-local feel and recommendations. And the reason why is I just feel like our neighborhood is extremely unique. Um, it is a very uh hard-to-win over crowd. I know you two know that as well as I do. And you never want to lose their trust. You know, one bad review out there could make uh the a big group uh lose trust in you. And so we are a very unique breed in this community, very tight-knit. We trust each other, we like recommendations from our peers and things as opposed to strangers. So I definitely see that here.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah. In the olden days, I used to go out with my cell phone and just take a picture if I saw someone's plumber or someone's AC person. And then I would, you know, put it in in a folder and remember, like, oh, that person worked at this house. So now I'm hoping that we can replicate that in our block and have, you know, just the best of the best on there. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Well, Trey, you had said that there's uh you're offering a few different vi uh avenues for advertisers

Vision, Sign-Up, And Closing

SPEAKER_02 23:50

to get the word out. What what all do you guys have?

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Well, at first we have a business directory where somebody can come in and list their business and people can leave ratings on that. We also have you know standard advertising platform uh where people can come in and participate in the app in a bunch of different formats and a bunch of different avenues and ways that will help drive customers. And then finally, we have a uh an avenue whereby we will be working with the block leader to take offline or physical um communications into the community. So you may get a monthly newsletter that says whose birthday it is this month, right? And what things are going on the block. That's what's our agenda this month. And so there's great ways to get in front of uh the community that you're in and coming from a trusted person. It feels like any special offers or discounts or things that come to your door from your block leader or your boss down the street are things you're gonna think he or she went out and and got for you. But it's gonna be relevant, it's gonna be close, it's gonna be keeping you in the know on what the new restaurants are, because as we know, so many of them launch um every week here in the park cities and just becomes something that's really great. In the end, our vision and goal is to help our local businesses get customers. And on the other side, we want to connect these local community um neighbors and and block leaders to opportunities that they need to find as well. So you're you're really creating something that's connecting two groups of people that want to find each other anyway and need each other in a way that benefits both of them at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Well, you've done a great job of walking us through all the details. I I don't think I have any more questions, but how do listeners sign up?

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Hey, well, you can sign up for free and you can go to the Apple store and look for our block or the Google Play Store and download the app.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Perfect. Well, guys, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been really interesting, and I wish you all the best. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

That's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge. That's been another episode of The Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson, and I'll see you next time.